U.S.-British airstrike hits Iraq military facility in no-fly zone

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Allied aircraft struck Iraq for the third time in a week, bombing a military facility southeast of Baghdad Monday morning, defense officials said.

The attack came after Iraqi forces fired on one of the U.S.-British patrols in the no-fly zone, and followed bombings on Thursday and Saturday, Pentagon officials said.

It brought to 37 the number of strikes reported this year by the United States and the United Kingdom coalition put together to patrol zones in the north and south of Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War.

In Monday's strike, coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to hit an air defense command and control facility near Al Amarah, about 170 miles southeast of the Iraqi capital, the U.S. Central Command said. The command called it "a self-defense measure in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition forces and their aircraft."

Monday's strike was in the southern zone, set up to protect Shiite Muslims, and it was the 27th one in the zone this year. In the northern zone, set up to protect Kurds, there have been 10 this year.

Both groups were given protection after unsuccessfully revolting against the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The strikes come as President George W. Bush's administration increases efforts to convince the world of the need to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and as Iraq wages a campaign to rally the world against such a move. But attacks and counterattacks in the no-fly zones have been going on for several years. The numbers ebb and flow, and the Pentagon says there is no particular increase now.

Iraq considers the patrols a violation of its sovereignty and frequently shoots at the planes with anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. In response, coalition pilots try to bomb Iraqi air defense systems.